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DAVID J. EICHER is the author of numerous books about the Civil War, including, most recently, The Longest Night, the authoritative modern, single-volume battle history of the Civil War. He lives with his family in a suburb of Milwaukee
Jefferson Davis faced a nearly impossible task as leader of the Confederacy: forging a group of political separatists into a unified team, which ultimately miserably failed. National Archives and Records Administration
The president’s wife, Varina Howell Davis, led the Richmond wartime social scene even as some aristocratic women scorned her and criticized her pedigree. The Museum of the Confederacy
Richmond’s central, monumental building was the Virginia State Capitol, a fantastic Greek Revival structure with stunning porticoes finished with Ionic columns. The cornerstone was laid in 1785, after the structure had been designed by Thomas Jefferson. The Confederate Senate met in a second-floor committee room adjacent to the governor’s room, above the House of Delegates Chamber; the House met in what is now termed the Old Senate Chamber, on the first floor. Library of Congress
The Bruce-Lancaster home near Twelfth and Clay streets hosted Vice President Alexander Stephens when he frequented Richmond in 1861 and 1862. The camera’s viewpoint in this 1865 image is from a position near the White House; the sentry box housing the president’s guard stands between the two houses. Library of Congress
Gruff, audacious Louis T. Wigfall started the war as a Jefferson Davis confidant and transformed into the president’s most vocal critic in the Senate. Library of Congress
The Confederacy’s vice president, Alexander H. Stephens, was a sickly, frail man who never weighed more than ninety pounds and, according to one newspaper-man, “looked like a freak.” Although charged with presiding over the Confederate Senate, Stephens spent most of the war at home in Georgia, bedridden. Library of Congress
Dedicated on Washington’s birthday in 1858, the monumental equestrian statue of George Washington gracing Capitol Hill served as a rallying point for Confederates during the war. Others claimed the statue issued a warning, as the general pointed his arm toward the state penitentiary. Library of Congress
Three long blocks northeast of Capitol Square, at Twelfth and Clay streets, stands the John Brockenbrough House, now known as the White House of the Confederacy. This lovely mansion, built in 1818 and lived in by several occupants before the war — including would-be Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon — was purchased in 1861 by the city of Richmond as a residence for the Jefferson Davis family. Library of Congress
As chairman of the Military Affairs Committee, South Carolina Congressman William Porcher Miles was the most powerful man in the House of Representatives. He disagreed with Davis over a variety of issues, including the need for a Supreme Court and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The Museum of the Confederacy
A Virginian who thought like President Davis on most issues, Robert M. T. Hunter was a slow, methodical planner who became Confederate secretary of state and later a senator in Richmond. He staunchly supported state rights and disagreed violently with Davis over the matter of freeing and arming slaves. Library of Congress
Henry Stuart Foote was one of the most explosive characters in the Civil War South. In 1847 he fought with and nearly dueled Jefferson Davis at a Washington tavern. In Richmond as a Confederate congressman, he claimed to be a “voice of the people” as he constantly attacked the administration. His troublemaking career in the House came to an end when he sneaked away from Richmond on a self-appointed peace mission behind the Yankee lines. Library of Congress
South Carolina’s celebrated “father of secession,” Robert Barnwell Rhett was the consummate Southern “fire-eater.” A former U. S. senator and owner of the influential Charleston Mercury, Rhett was spurned in Montgomery in trying to seize leadership of the Confederacy. He attacked Davis with a passion before leaving Richmond to criticize the administration in angry editorials in the Mercury, terming Davis “criminally incompetent.” Library of Congress
A large man who lived large, Robert A. Toombs was a Georgia politician who was considered too radical for the Confederate presidency. His hard drinking in Montgomery during the genesis of the Confederacy sealed his fate: Davis named him secretary of state for a nation that had no foreign relations. He tired of this and turned to a generalship in the field before returning to Georgia and creating a full-time job of criticizing Davis and his administration. Library of Congress
This panoramic view of central Richmond includes part of the “burnt district,” the territory of the evacuation fire, and was made by Alexander Gardner on April 6, 1865. The Capitol is visible on the horizon; the Spotswood Hotel stands in front of it. This view was made from Gamble’s Hill. Cook Collection, Valentine Museum
The Stars and Stripes again flies from the staff atop the Capitol in this Richmond image taken across the James River in April 1865. The burnt
district lies between the Capitol and the river; the Customs House, where Jefferson Davis had his office, stands right of the Capitol. Library of Congress
Alexander Gardner’s image of the burnt district on April 6 includes picturesque destruction from the evacuation fire. The size of the inferno was staggering. Library of Congress
A view of the city from the Gamble’s Hill area reveals the skeletons of buildings that stood throughout the war only to fall at war’s end. Visible on the horizon are the Capitol and Customs House, as well as church steeples. Library of Congress
Richmond’s City Hall (right) stands on Broad Street as a magnificent Greek Revival structure, built in 1815. The Broad Street Methodist Church is at left. In the foreground of this 1865 image are Union occupation troops resting amid stacked rifles. Library of Congress
City Hall housed all the functions of the city government during wartime Richmond. The city grew by several factors as soldiers and office seekers swelled in from the countryside, creating impossible problems that would frustrate the population throughout the struggle. Library of Congress
The “brains of the Confederacy” and “Jeff Davis’s right hand,” Judah P. Benjamin was born in the British West Indies, the child of Sephardic Jewish settlers. A close friend of Jefferson Davis’s, he served as attorney general and then secretary of war in the Confederacy. He quarreled with P. G. T. Beauregard and Stonewall Jackson and was chastised regularly by the Confederate Congress. Benjamin resigned under intense pressure but was then named secretary of state. He was the most influential Jewish politician in American history. National Archives and Records Administration
Stephen R. Mallory, born in Trinidad, was a Floridian chosen for political balance to be Jefferson Davis’s secretary of the navy. He began with a navy consisting of twelve small ships. Bitterly attacked by members of Congress for inefficiency and lack of aggressiveness, he weathered the assaults and lasted throughout the entire war. National Archives and Records Administration
Aristocratic Richmonder Joseph C. Mayo served as the city’s mayor during the war. He faced the task of placating civilians in a rapidly growing city that was often short of supplies and under a government that seemingly didn’t care. In April 1863 a “bread riot” erupted in the city, with more than one thousand assembling and protesting the lack of available food, ransacking stores, and screaming in anger. Mayo appealed to the crowd as Jefferson Davis passed out a few coins to try to suppress the rioters, who eventually dispersed. Cook Collection, Valentine Museum
Alabama lawyer Leroy P. Walker was chosen as the Confederacy’s first secretary of war for balance of representation across the South after the state’s two most prominent politicians turned down the office. Jefferson Davis made all the decisions and treated Walker mostly as a figure-head; after seven months Walker no longer could bear the arrangement, and he resigned to take up a short-lived military command. He then returned to practicing law in Alabama. Library of Congress
A grandson of Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe Randolph drafted Virginia’s conscription law and, in 1862, became Jefferson Davis’s secretary of war. He constantly advised Davis to attend to battles in the west, with only partial success. Frustrated with Davis’s reluctance to follow his advice, Randolph resigned in late 1862 and two years later left for Europe to ride out the rest of the war. Library of Congress
Another Virginian, James A. Seddon, held the longest tenure as Confederate secretary of war, from late 1862 to early 1865. Inexperienced as an administrator and lacking military knowledge, he nevertheless served very capably and weathered criticism from nearly all quarters, save for his good relationship with the president. After the war he “considered his life to be a complete failure.” National Archives and Records Administration
The U.S. Post Office and Customs House, a Tuscan-Italianate edifice constructed in 1858, stands on Richmond’s Main Street, between Tenth and Eleventh streets. The Confederacy took over this building and used it as the Treasury Department building and as an executive office for Jefferson Davis. The Confederate State Department met on the building’s second floor, which also hosted cabinet sessions. The Confederate president’s office, where much of the business of the war took place, existed on the third floor of this building, facing the Capitol. Library of Congress
The Spotswood Hotel, newly built when the war commenced, was Richmond’s place to see and be seen. Jefferson Davis and his family lived here until a home could be found, as did cabinet members and many congressmen and senators. After the Confederate victory of First Manassas, Jefferson Davis made a stirring speech from a window of the hotel. Library of Congress
The consummate Virginian, Robert E. Lee opposed secession until his own state left the Union. He began the war inauspiciously, serving as a general in western Virginia and in South Carolina and then as adviser to the president in Richmond before Joseph E. Johnston’s wounding thrust him into command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee’s performance in the field was legendary; distrustful of diluting his own power, Davis resisted naming Lee general-in-chief until near war’s end, when it was too late to make any difference. Cook Collection, Valentine Museum
The Lee Home at 707 East Franklin Street in Richmond housed Mary Custis Lee and various family members from early 1864 to the end of the war. Lee arrived at the house after Appomattox and stayed until September 1865, when the family moved to Lexington. This image is from 1865. Library of Congress
Braxton Bragg, one of six full generals in the Confederacy, survived scathing attacks on his generalship due to his friendship with Jefferson Davis. A North Carolinian, he fought at Shiloh, invaded Kentucky, and clashed with Yankees at Stones River and Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Following harsh criticism, he was summoned to Richmond to serve as Davis’s military adviser during the last year of the war. Davis’s loyalty to his friends sometimes caused severe damage, as was the case with Bragg. Library of Congress
Like Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston suffers from a record stained with frequent criticism. This Virginia general, another close friend of Lee’s, commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia before being wounded at Seven Pines. However, in the first weeks of war, he had already become outraged at Jefferson Davis for ranking him lower than he believed just. He had a testy relationship with the administration throughout his whole career — from First Manassas to his surrender to Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. National Archives and Records Administration
The senior general officer of the Confederacy, Samuel Cooper served as adjutant general and inspector general and was characterized by War Department insiders as a “glorified clerk.” He never wore a uniform, seemed dull and was distracted by trivial matters, and lived in a cramped rooming house in Richmond, his family often away. He was a paperwork general whom two famous Richmond diarists both thought simply “incompetent,” but Davis could trust him, and so he stayed throughout the whole war. Library of Congress
The first great hero of the war, P. G. T. Beauregard drove the Yankees from Fort Sumter and helped to retain the field at First Manassas. Relations between Beauregard and Davis soured because the general wanted an independent command, and Beauregard was subordinate to others. He fought all over the western theater and was never happy with his treatment by the president. National Archives and Records Administration
A Kentuckian who relocated to Texas, John Bell Hood was known as an aggressive fighter from the early days of the war. He was also a close friend of Senator Louis T. Wigfall, who looked after him. Hood rose through the command ranks and accompanied his Texas Brigade as it screamed the rebel yell into attacks. He lost the use of his left arm at Gettysburg and lost his right leg at Chickamauga. After leading a foolhardy campaign in Tennessee late in the war, he was forgotten by Davis. Library of Congress
Son of a brigadier general of the War of 1812, Marylander John H. Winder was a harsh man who drew a difficult assignment as provost marshal of Richmond. As such, Winder tried to keep law and order in a town that tripled in si
ze over the course of the war. He was hated by Richmonders for trying to restrict too much and finally was sent to Anderson-ville Prison in Georgia to clean it up, but couldn’t. He died in 1865, before Federal authorities could capture him, thus saving a trial and hanging by the Yankees for mistreating Union prisoners. Library of Congress
At times Kentuckian John C. Breckinridge was the only politician in the South who seemed to keep his head. A former U.S. vice president under James Buchanan, Breckinridge became a general and fought at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Moving east, he checked the Yankees at Cold Harbor before returning to Richmond as the Confederacy collapsed, in February 1865. As the last Confederate secretary of war, Breckinridge judged the situation hopeless, so tired from the struggle he termed himself “an extinct volcano.” National Archives and Records Administration
A North Carolina professor of mathematics, D. H. Hill was a bitter, combative, and aggressive general officer. He fought in one of the first land battles of the war at Big Bethel and went on to the Virginia peninsula, Antietam, and Chickamauga. He criticized his superiors and got entangled in a grave dispute with Braxton Bragg over a petition requesting removal of Bragg from army command. Davis supported his friend Bragg, and Hill’s career was ruined. He spent the rest of the war trying to clear his name. Library of Congress
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